death

Good intelligent humour seems to be in short supply these days, especially when we could all use a little of it in our lives given the depressing dross served up as so-called “news.” An Exile’s Perfect Letter (2018, Breakwater Books) fills that need, particularly for those of us Boomers nearing retirement age like Professor Hugh Norman is.… Continue reading

Over the few short years of its existence as an imprint of Baraka Books, QC Fiction has now produced nine titles, with a tenth one in the works. Looking back over this diverse catalogue, it would be easy to compare them to snowflakes (no two are alike) or the proverbial sampler box of chocolates.… Continue reading

Note to readers: In lieu of the regular review that I would normally post, I am instead publishing a letter* I received from a reader regarding Songs for the Cold of Heart (2018, QC Fiction). I found it fairly sums up my thoughts on the book, and I reprint it here with the sender’s permission.… Continue reading

Acclaimed poet Catherine Graham’s debut novel Quarry (2017, Two Wolves Press) is the type of story that takes me back to two places: my high school English class and my family’s summer cottage. Firstly, it is exactly the type of book that our English teacher would have had us read as a class, then dissect and/or write a book review of.… Continue reading

Karen Smythe is the author of a short-story collection, Stubborn Bones, and Figuring Grief. Her stories have also appeared in Grain, the Fiddlehead, the Antigonish Review, and the Gaspereau Review. She lives in Guelph, Ontario.

The following guest review is by David Chau, who is a writer of creative nonfiction, future author of a historical narrative set in Edo-Period Japan, and a University of King’s College MFA graduate in search of great stories. He lives in Kingston, Ontario.)

outsiders eating their lobster suppers in New Glasgow or fish and chips on the patio at North Rustico Harbour with a decor of lobster traps and fishing nets watching the sun setting into the sea, life on the east coast seems idyllic.… Continue reading

Lesley Choyce is an active, prolific author and his latest title The Unlikely Redemption of John Alexander MacNeil (Roseway Publishing, 2017) is bound to be well-received by the reading public. It is the tale of the octogenarian widower John Alex (as he is known to everyone) living in rural Deepvale, Cape Breton where he still sets a place for his deceased wife of thirty years, Eva.… Continue reading